Dambusters have provincial showing

Lewisporte - LEWISPORTE Five Air Cadet Squadrons from Central were in Lewisporte March 2 competing for the right to represent Central at the provincial Drill Team Competition.

The five squadrons that took Part included 842 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron (RCACS) Grand-Falls, 512 RCACS Bishops Falls, 780 RCACS Gambo, 840 RCACS Indian Bay and the host team and competition winners 617 Dambusters from Lewisporte.

Warrant Officer second class Megan Gould was the drill team commander for the winning squadron. She said she loves to take part in drill and really enjoyed the opportunity to see the other teams compete. She was also quite excited about her teams win.

I am very pleased. They did really, really good and I am very proud of them, said WO2 Gould.

And she has reason to be proud. As drill team commander WO2 Gould was responsible for puttying together the program for the team.

I had to make up the routine, I had make up an optional routine with commands and a precision routine that had no commands, that the team had to memorize, explained the cadet. I call the commands at the competition.

WO2 Gould admits it is a good feeling to know that the program she worked out for the team impressed the judges to the point where they earned the right to represent Central at the provincial competition.

WO2 Gould said she is really looking forward to the provincial competition.

Captain Ambrosse Patterson has been working with the 617 Dambusters since December in preparing for the Drill Team Competition. He said all the cadets put a lot of time and commitment into preparing for the event.

The cadets have been practicing really hard all year and I was pleased. It was one of the best times they did their routine, said Capt. Patterson.

The 617 Dambusters, with 18 members, had the largest drill team competing in the competition making it a harder group to coordinate than smaller teams. Capt. Patterson said that a larger team also means more people to possibly make an error during competition.

He also noted that while practicing they also had two spare members training who could fill into the routine should any member of the team not be able to perform on competition day.

Although Capt. Patterson was impressed with the drill team, he said he still sees room for improvement and will be working with the group to tweak their performance for the provincials.

Captain Miranda Mills organized the Drill Team Competition, which was hosted by the 617 Dambusters Air Cadet Squadron at the gymnasium of Lewisporte Academy (6-9 division). Capt. Mills said she was pleased with the participation.

We had two new comers to the competition this year - 780 RCACS Gambo and 512 RCACS Bishop's Falls. Even with little time they still managed to impress us, said Capt. Mills. This is what is all about, some units worry they are not competitive but we want them to come out learn and take back new things to their unit to improve on for next year. All of these units will do that, a lot of units have backed out for this reason but we encourage them to come anyhow.

Capt. Mills did note that while they were pleased with the participation from the air Cadet Squadrons, she did note that the competition is not restricted solely to air cadet squadrons.

There are more units in the central area like Sea Cadets and Army Cadets. I would love to see them become more involved as this is a tri-service event across the island, she said.

Capt. Mills said that the displays they viewed in Lewisporte on Sunday were the best teams they have witnessed thus far.

Personal drill was at an all time high even for the new units taking part. I was very impressed with the out come but marks were very close between two units, said Capt. Mills.

The Drill team from 617 will be representing Central at the provincial Drill Team Competition slated for April 25-27 in St. Johns. A total of eight teams will be advancing through winning at the regional level as well as two wild card positions for the top two teams beyond the winners.

We are looking forward to an intense competition, said Capt. Mills.

Capt. Patterson said these experiences are the things that these cadets will take with them as they grow up and move on.